


of artificial watermelon and young love

by Anonymous



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Dance Dance Revolution - Freeform, Drabble, Falling In Love, Fluff, High School, Kissing, LMAO THE OTHER DREAMIES R JUST CAMEOS THIS IS LITERALLY ALL JENO AND YUKHEI, M/M, One Shot, Pining, Rough Kissing, Summer, Summer Love, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, YUKHEI IS JUST A HUGE DORK WHO IS RLLY IN LOVE, cute shit, okay im not kidding, tbh i cant write kiss scenes sorry bye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-08 05:12:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14097987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: yukhei regrets inviting jeno to hang out at the local arcade after he realises that jeno is probably the cutest, most kissable person in the entire world





	of artificial watermelon and young love

As the sun shone down on the ground below, it seemed that time was merely a figure of Yukhei’s imagination. School had been let out only a day ago, yet it felt as if he had been stuck in that season for his entire life. Taking his hands out of his pocket, Yukhei opened the door to the tall apartment complex, jogging up the steps to the last level where he was met with a single door that showcased the numbers ‘423’. Taking a deep breath, Yukhei knocked on the door, surprised when the door opened almost immediately, the person standing in front of him his longtime friend, Lee Jeno.

“Ah, you finally came! What took you so long?” Jeno snickered, elbowing Yukhei in the ribs while stepping outside the door, gesturing towards the elevator. A small ‘oh’ sound escaped Yukhei’s mouth, obviously embarrassed that he hadn’t thought about taking the elevator instead. “Whatever. Let’s get going before the arcade closes.” Jeno smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling with a warmth that only Jeno could really do.

The two boys walked side by side, not much conversation happening between the two. As they had been friends for quite a while (ever since Yukhei’s family had emigrated from Hong Kong to Korea during his first grade), the mutual silence between the two was anything but uncomfortable.

Yet, for some reason, as they both walked the down the busy street of Seoul, Yukhei could only feel his heart pounding in his chest. Why would his heart not stop beating so violently? Yes, he had known Jeno for a long time, but this was one of the moments where Yukhei could not control his own feelings. Panicking, Yukhei let out a large cough, his cheeks suddenly turning red.

“Hey, are you alright?” Jeno asked, eyebrows furrowed in doubt and honest worriment. As they could not stop walking in the busy intersection, the two kept on walking.

“Yeah, I’m- I’m alright.” Yukhei awkwardly laughed, dismissing the thought with a wave of a hand. “I just… I’m just a bit cold, that’s all.”

At these words, Jeno squinted a bit, pondering the words that Yukhei had just said. “Yukhei. It’s the beginning of summer. Are you seriously okay?” Realising what he had just said, Yukhei began to cough again, this time not on purpose but rather out of pure embarrassment. “If you’re really cold you could hold my hands since most heat escapes from the hand or something.” Yukhei knew this claim was wrong, if not, completely false. But he welcomed the offer.

“U-Uh, yeah. Sure.” Yukhei stuttered, immediately grasping Jeno’s hands. It was true, his hands were cold, but this was mostly from the awful feeling of nervousness that was running through his veins. Oh, how he regretted planning the trip to the arcade the day before. While Jeno’s hands were quite soft (and very warm), Yukhei’s seemed to be extremely cold and dry.

“My God, they really are cold. And dry. You should really consider investing in hand cream, to be honest. True words from Jaemin.” Jeno commented, not really bothered by the fact that they were holding hands, in public at a place where almost every student in their grade came to hang out in the summer. Feeling another violent cough creeping up his throat, Yukhei grasped Jeno’s hand a bit tighter.

The two made their way up to the last block, only a few more steps before they reached the arcade’s door. Next to the building was a small convenience store, a large refrigerator with a colourful ice cream display painted onto the front. Spotting this, Jeno let go of Yukhei’s hand, running towards the freezer and immediately taking out two popsicles. In his left was a watermelon flavoured popsicle, while the other was red bean flavoured. After all this time, it still seemed like Jeno still remembered Yukhei’s favourite flavour.

“Hey, buy this for us. You owe me from the last time we went out.” Jeno said, shoving the red bean dessert into Yukhei’s hands, already opening the watermelon one and giving the wrapper to the elder. “Thanks.” Jeno laughed, watching Yukhei dejectedly fish for a spare 5000 won bill in his front pocket. After paying the manager and getting a few coins back as change, Yukhei opened the wrapper for his popsicle but immediately regretted it as he bit straight into it, an uncomfortable feeling of pain and death surging through his front teeth into his head.

“Ah- shit.” Yukhei cursed in his native tongue, accidentally dropping the popsicle on the ground. “Well, there goes 2000 won.” He muttered, crestfallen as the red bean began to melt all over the pavement.

Jeno, previously distracted by a huge billboard advertising some kind of toothpaste, looked down to see Yukhei’s fallen popsicle and frowned. “Dang, I can always count on you to mess things up, huh. Want a bit of mine instead?” Jeno held out his own, a small drip of it falling onto Yukhei’s shoes, staining the white surface with a small amount of pastel pink. Yukhei knew that watermelon was indeed Jeno’s favourite fruit and flavour to eat, so he turned the offer down.

“No, I’m fine. Besides, I wasn’t really hungry anyways. I actually have no idea why I bought that.” Yukhei shrugged, trying to hide his disappointment and discomfort with a casual retaliation.

Jeno rolled his eyes, still smiling as always. “Suit yourself. I’ll just enjoy this myself.” The two walked over to a small bench near the arcade. Since food wasn’t allowed inside, they figured that they would just wait it out and then enter the establishment. Sitting there without anything much to do, Yukhei pulled out his phone but was quickly bored by the constant texts from Mark and Donghyuck fighting over which idol was better. Who cared about Xiumin and Leeteuk? They were both from the same company in the end.

Turning off his phone and slipping it back into his pocket, Yukhei refocused his attention onto Jeno, who yet again, was distracted by the moving ads that were reflected on the giant skyscraper across from them. Biting down on his lips, Yukhei wondered what it would feel like to kiss Jeno. Shaking his head, he buried the thought. Why was he even thinking about such thoughts? But then again, such a kiss would be sweet and short. Maybe it would taste like the familiar feeling of artificial watermelon and sweetener.

Noticing this, Jeno grinned slyly, finishing up the last of his popsicle. “Hey, stop daydreaming. Let’s go inside before they close up for the day.” Snapping out of his internal musings, Yukhei agreed, leaping up from his seat and opening the door to the arcade for Jeno.

Inside the building, the two played a variety of games. As their taste in gameplay varied, they split up often, Yukhei grateful for the time alone as it could help him clear his mind. By the time Yukhei was on his 47th round of Street Fighter and almost every kid in the arcade was lining up to watch Yukhei pummel the next defenseless opponent with Chun Li, he had completely forgotten that Jeno was around. Despite this, it only took a small tap on the shoulder before Yukhei was reminded of him again.

“Okay, you’ve played enough Street Fighter for the day. Let someone else win for a chance. Let’s go play some DDR.” Ah yes, Dance Dance Revolution, the game that Yukhei secretly loved to play yet was too embarrassed to really tell anyone. At least Jeno hadn’t judged him when they first went to the arcade together.

Leaning over the game’s back bars, Jeno waited for Yukhei to take some tokens from his pocket. “Do you have any gum? I’m parched.”

Looking up at Jeno, Yukhei nodded. “Yeah, just give me a second. I think I brought some on the way here.” With one hand grasping four tokens, Yukhei searched his back pocket for the small packet of gum he had bought on the way to school a few days ago. Pulling the pack out, he popped a piece into his mouth, taking out another and holding it out towards Jeno. “Take it,” Yukhei muttered between chews, walking over to the other side of the machines and slipping the tokens into their slots.

“Wait, come over here for a second,” Jeno said, gesturing for Yukhei to get closer. While disco music blared in the background from the machine, Yukhei walked over to Jeno, feeling a bit uncertain when Jeno kept on signaling for him to get closer. It wasn’t until they were only inches apart when Jeno leaned up on his toes to kiss Yukhei was when Yukhei began to freeze up. Despite this, Yukhei had enough brain cells to still lean in, grabbing hold of the bar behind Jeno with his left hand and grasping the back of Jeno’s head with his other. It seemed that Yukhei was right- Jeno’s lips tasted like the sweet aftertaste of watermelon and young love.

Forcing Yukhei’s mouth open with his tongue, Jeno couldn’t help but let out a small whimper. Yukhei’s hold on the other’s hair tightened, not caring if someone else saw. Besides, the DDR machines were in the back of the arcade and hardly anyone ever used them anymore. They were basically the sole customers that were stopping the arcade owners from selling the machine.

In the midst of this, Jeno took the piece of chewing gum from Yukhei’s mouth, cutting the kiss off and putting it inside his own mouth instead. At this action, Yukhei leaned back, his neck, ears, and entire face red-hot from the embarrassment. “You’re disgusting. And hot.” Yukhei breathed out, running a hand through his hair in desperation to remain his cool.

Breath heavy, Jeno eyes twinkled, still chewing on the piece of gum. “Whatever, idiot. Let’s go play some Dance Dance Revolution.”

**Author's Note:**

> hello i love yukhei and jeno and i was inspired by these [pictures](https://twitter.com/Hoseoksfingers/status/977925859557470210)  
> please look at them theyre very cute
> 
> hmu on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zhunyeon)


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